A bus of tourists in Venice dropped from an elevated road, killing 21 in fiery crash

Emergency services personnel work at the scene of a passenger bus crash that killed 21 people and injured at least 15 others in Venice, Italy, on Tuesday night. Slow Press/LiveMedia/LaPresse via AP hide caption

toggle caption Slow Press/LiveMedia/LaPresse via AP

Emergency services personnel work at the scene of a passenger bus crash that killed 21 people and injured at least 15 others in Venice, Italy, on Tuesday night.

Slow Press/LiveMedia/LaPresse via AP

VENICE — A bus carrying dozens of people plummeted 15 meters (50 feet) from an elevated road in Venice, causing a fiery crash that killed 21 people and injured at least 15, mostly foreign tourists returning to a nearby campsite.

Those who died in the Tuesday night crash included at least five Ukrainians, one German citizen and the man who was driving the bus, according to the Venice prefecture.

At least two of the dead were children, Venice prefect Michele Di Bari said, adding that many of the people involved in the accident were "young." Nine people were in critical condition, hospital officials said later on Wednesday morning, including a 3-year-old girl from Ukraine.

The accident scene drew the attention of passersby. A couple of locals said that the overpass was more than 60 years old and that nothing similar had ever happened there, while a man wearing a biker jacket stopped his motorcycle to tie to a post a bouquet of plastic flowers.

The bus was carrying foreign tourists from Venice's Piazzale Roma to the Hu campground on Tuesday evening when it fell from an elevated street next to railway tracks in the borough of Mestre, catching fire. Tourists frequently stay in boroughs across the lagoon from the canals of Venice's famous historic center to find cheaper accommodations.

The injured included French, Spanish, Austrian and Croatian nationals, local officials said. The Spanish Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that two people from Spain were injured in the accident, and both were in hospital and in good condition.

The French Foreign Ministry confirmed on Wednesday that there was a French national among the injured. Hospital psychologists were working to help the victims deal with the trauma.

when a bus plunged off a viaduct close to the southern city of Avellino.